Denise (Dee) Sewell

Summary

Dee Sewell is proprietor of Greenside Up, an environmental and horticultural consultancy, mentoring, education and social garden design service, who works across Ireland www.greensideup.ie.

As a qualified horticulturalist, transformative community educator and landscape designer, since 2009 she has worked with many urban and rural communities in informal green spaces, where her prime thematic knowledge is about community food growing and the creation of biodiversity spaces. Dee also provides biodiversity consultancy, design and education services to County Council's and Development Partnerships across the country.  

During 2022, she worked with the URBACT Network Ru:rban, mentoring 10 urban growing projects in Carlow, Ireland.

In 2010, Dee became a founding member and for 10 years an executive committee member of Community Gardens Ireland, a national, voluntary network established to support and encourage community growing across the country. She is currently a member of the executive committee of County Carlow Environmental Network, who are working on a campaign to encourage people to eat and support locally produced food.

All of Dee’s work underpins the major community development goals of encouraging voluntary work, providing training and education for social, recreational, cultural, work and personal development, as well as encouraging active engagement in decision making in local communities.

Dee was a European GROW Observatory Community Champion and is a member of the VHI Speaker Panel, an award winning environmental, outdoors and lifestyle blogger, a VOICE Ireland recycling ambassador, a Stop Food Waste Master Composter and a garden speaker. She provides talks and grow your own demonstrations at festivals, clubs or workplaces and online.

She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Horticulturalists and a supporter of the Garden & Landscape Designers Association in Ireland.